Infodemic

As people all around the world fight the COVID-19 pandemic, we have to step up and also fight the infodemic we are facing.

Every moment of every day, we are being hit with a constant stream of information. Too many are willing to change the narrative for an extra click.

We have to recognize that we are not informed. No, we clicked an article that the Facebook algorithm spat out at us. That article already matched our belief. We click to confirm not to change our minds.

Information comes at us a map already drawn. Here are three approaches to smash this:

Be willing to change your mind. More difficult than we think. When we change our minds we have to admit we have been wrong in the past. Instead of trying to work through the shame and loss of status, a better approach is to be known as someone who changes their mind frequently. It’s a posture of “Knowing what I know now…” Knowing what I know now I can now see that this is a better approach.

Don’t be a passive player of information. Read more books on a subject. Become educated on why technology is irrisitable, how people sort themselves, how systems are made, what does history show us…It makes the media much more manageable to digest once we understand how the strings are pulled.

Who’s the source? We should always know the source of every fact, every meme, every claim.

This is one of the greatest challenges of our time. We have these amazing tools at our disposal, and yet, we are still learning how to use them.